Do You Poken?
Poken seems to have taken over the techie space as the next big thing in conferences and networking. Don’t know what a Poken is? Well, it’s basically a USB drive with a cartoon character for a cover. The drive has software installed on it that automatically connects to the Poken website when you plug it in. It also has a sensor on the hand that flashes when you “high 4” with another poken, effectively exchanging virtual contact information.
I first learned of this product at Affiliate Summit East 2009, thanks to Peter Shankman mentioning them in his keynote. It seemed like everyone wanted a Poken after that – and many people bought some from Peter before the conference was over. Peter has obviously identified these cute little virtual business cards as a significant advance in sharing contact information, a “game-changer”, even.
But are Poken really the wave of the future?
It depends who you are. If you travel and network a lot, they could be incredibly useful as they pick up popularity and more people are available for you to “high 4” with. Shelly Good-Cook says of the device, “I bought one a couple months and other than my twin sister, for whom I also bought one, I haven’t found anyone to “high five” mine with. I took it to a networking event I attended in Arlington, VA recently where most of the attendees were young, hip and computer savvy, but none of them had heard of it yet. I even met a reporter who covered that beat and it was new to her, so I gave her the scoop on it, hoping she covers it. They may have won a Tech Crunch Award in Europe, but they still have work to do in the U.S. before they get wide spread adoption. For me, this is like the early days of the fax machine. I have one but there isn’t much value in it until a lot more people get one. Most of the people I talked to about it at the networking event thought it was a great idea, although some of the men were less than thrilled with the limited design options. Most thought $20 was reasonable for the functionality although a few balked at the price point, stating it was much too high.”
Poken has responded to the cartoon complaints and come out with a more professional looking Poken, the Poken Pulse, that looks much closer to a traditional USB drive and boasts 2GB of space and traditional USB drive functionality in addition to the Poken networking features. At a higher price point, I actually expect more professionals will go with it over the cartoonish regular Poken as it does have that added functionality. Most of the feedback I get about Poken are from my contacts in the affiliate marketing community, and I wonder now that there have been a couple more conferences if they’ve gotten more use. Elizabeth Hannan said of her Poken, “I have had a experience with Poken at SXSW 09 where I was first introduced to Poken. It was incredibly helpful and made awkward introductions into easy conversations.”. I can definitely see how that is beneficial for those of us that are friendly but not incredibly extroverted.
Whether or not these are the wave of the future, time will tell. The buzz has seemed to died down in the last few months, but they’re not being tossed aside with that m100 Palm Pilot just yet. Do you Poken? Share your story!
Read MoreWeb 2.0 Expo: Day 1 Keynotes
Most conferences I’ve been to have one keynote for the entire conference, maybe one keynote per day. This conference had a bunch of keynotes all in one big block – every day! On the official Day 1 of the conference, April 1st, they had the keynotes in the evening after the sessions and before the cocktail reception, sponsored by Palm. The other days the keynotes were in the morning. I made it to the keynotes on the 2nd, but not on the 3rd, so those notes are coming tomorrow. Without further ado, here is a recap of some random notes I took during the first day’s keynote sessions.
Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media: O’Reilly Radar
- Google figured out how to extract additional data.
- Able to extract meaning.
- Starting to see coordination of electronic sensors.
- A meaningful names pace is a very powerful tool.
- Meaning doesn’t have to be formalized.
- The energy signature of major appliances are so unique you can identify the make/model by the energy surge.
- We’re getting beyond the point where the web is just fun and it’s starting to work.
- Web 2.0 + World = Web Squared
- History is on a different course because of someone being able to understand how to apply technology (President Obama).
- The Power of Less
- Take what we’ve learned with the consumer internet and apply it to hard problems.
- Build a simple system – let it evolve.
- Create more value than you capture.
- Continue to create, invent, and make value.
John Maeda, Rhode Island School of Design: “Open Source Administration”
- Developed the laws of simplicity.
- Forever Stamp the perfect example of simplicity of design.
- Technology makes things happen at light speed.
- The pendulum swung towards tech and now it’s swinging back to humanity.
- RISD is a traditional art and design school.
- Perfect symbol for American innovation.
- Used to have a hierarchy of leadership tree, turning into a network that you can talk to anyone in.
- Creative Leadership:
- Leading Creatively – example Steve Jobs
- Google creative leadership
Stephen Elop, Microsoft Business Division: A Conversation with Stephen Elop
- People are bringing in different perspectives.
- Has the benefit of learning from other areas of the business.
- Taking on the cloud: Microsoft working to combine offline.
- Will there be MS Office apps for the iPhone? Keep watching!
- Beta code for Office online soon (maybe next year).
- Software plus services.
- Sharepoint is the fastest growing product in the history of Microsoft.
- If they redo any interface, half a billion people use the products and would have to re-learn the software.
- OneNote is like Word on crack.
- Microblogging – will Microsoft get into that? They’re experimenting with it and blogs.
- There’s a joke that Microsoft is the evil empire, so Stephen gave Tim a “I am the Empire” shirt people around the MS campus have been wearing lately.
Amanda Koster, SalaamGarage: Imagine What You Can Do
- Telling stories that will make a difference in people’s lives.
- She told the story of a little girl and what it’s like to go on a SalaamGarage.com trip.
- Tell someone’s story through you, through your social media.
- Use your influence to educate to make a difference.
- It’s all for amateurs; not for professional photographers.
- They’ve used ReveNews
- It’s not a broad message, it’s one little girl, that you met, whose story you can share.
Michael Abbott, Palm, Inc.: High Order Bit
- New Palms run on a web OS
- Cards – multiple apps running at once.
- Palm Synergy – bring the data together in a single place.
- Notifications – notice manager.
- Web OS platform built with HTML, Java, and CSS.
- Doesn’t require a server to run.
Tim O’Reilly had very engaging and interesting things to say, and I loved listening to John Maeda’s presentation. Stephen Elop seemed to be on the defensive a little during the Q&A portion of their conversation, and what he said kind of ran on a little and I tuned out unintentionally. I appreciated Amanda’s passion and I really like what they’re doing at SalaamGarage, but towards the end it did sound like a Save the Children commercial. Finally, since I have a Blackberry that I love I kind of tuned out Michael’s commercial for the new Palm Pre, but it DID sound like a pretty handy little PDA.
I’m glad that they made the video of John Maeda available and I wish they’d have made the video of Amanda Koster available too, because they were both good speakers.
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